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This is not a typical Marion Zimmer Bradley novel. This book is the result of a bet between Marion and Don Wollheim, her editor for the Darkover novels at DAW Books. In addition, it's her response to the Gor novels - where men were men and women were slaves - that were also being published by DAW Books. Yes, this book does start out with a heroine who has been captured and is being sold as a slave, who has amnesia and remembers nothing of her life before the trip across the desert with the slavers - and, due to a head injury, remembers mercifully little of that. But she does know that she would rather fight in the arena than be a harlot for the men who do, and that choice changes the rest of the book. In a Gor-style novel the woman would become less her own person, eventually learning to be a contented and obedient slave. In this book, even while the heroine, called Zadieyek of Gyre, remains a slave, she is something quite different from the typical 'slave girl' - she grows and develops, always searching for her memory and her past, convinced that this is not how her life is supposed to be. And, of course, she's right.

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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Marion Zimmer Bradley is probably best known for her Darkover novels and her best-selling Arthurian novel THE MISTS OF AVALON. In addition to her novels, Mrs. Bradley edited many magazines, amateur and professional, including Marion Zimmer Bradley's FANTASY Magazine, which she started in 1988, and an annual anthology, SWORD AND SORCERESS. For more information, see her website: www.mzbworks.com.

Top customer reviews

I recommend this book only for having a complete set of books by MZB; otherwise I would not buy it.

This should have been more aptly titled Gladiator Woman; the major character did most of her fighting in a ring in front of an audience.

The plot was good, but the development of the plot was not good. This books seems to be an earlier book of Bradley's because of the stilted prose, poor descriptions, etc. Possibly she wrote it as a teenager or in her early 20 person; the style of writing seems rather immature or undeveloped.

She may have had it published later in her career (in 1985) because of her popularity, but her books she was writing in the 1980s were so much more well written than this book. I even think that The Door Through Space was more well written, but not by much. Since this latter book was published about 1961, I suspect Warrior Woman was written before this one, although published much later.

Sorry to say this book was a disappointment. I can really get lost in her other books but this one got weirder and weirder and the end was a huge disappointment. It was like she had lost her own way while writing it and just added an ending that didn't fit (although in some ways it was sort of predictable) and wanted to be done with it herself. Something a teenage girl would write, surprised it came from her.